Damn you, Naughty Dog. Damn you in the best possible way.
Now that we are approaching the release of [amazon_link id=”B007CM0K86″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Last of Us[/amazon_link] we are seeing more and more gameplay and exactly how Joel and Ellie will interact in this post-apocalyptic society. The newest developer diary titled ” Death and Choices” shows how the crafting system works as well as deciding to make it a real time event and how important it was to make it easy to use.
I love how the choice of “flight or fight” will affect you in the game. Do you sneak past a group of guys and lose everything you could loot from them and the environment or do you risk death to scrounge all you can?
If you are not a fan of Batman, then today is not the day to be here.
WB Games has released the first trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins and while it shows no gameplay, it is over four minutes of Batman and Deathstroke beating the holy hell out of each other. Throw in an appearance by Deadshot and Black Mask pulling a Manhunt on someone and my interest is piqued. Let’s just hope WB Montreal can get the gameplay to match the flow of Rocksteady’s first two entries.
So here’s the deal. Yesterday we posted a story saying that Kevin Conroy would be returning to voice Batman in the upcoming Arkham Origins game after weeks of WB Games saying they were getting a new actor for the role.
Good? OK, well scratch that….or not. Hell I don’t know anymore!
WB Games announced today that Batman would be voiced by Roger Craig Smith, who voiced Ezio in Assassin’s Creed and Chris Redfield in Resident Evil. Sooo where does this Kevin Conroy saying he will be Batman? Hell if I know. Maybe the game will be told in flashback…or something?
One awesome bit of news though was that Troy Baker would be voicing The Joker. I know, I know, it’s not Mark Hamill, but Hamill appears to be sticking to his guns saying he is done with the character. Troy Baker voiced Booker DeWitt in [amazon_link id=”B003O6E6NE” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Bioshock Infinite[/amazon_link], Joel in [amazon_link id=”B007CM0K86″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Last of Us[/amazon_link] and also Robin and Two-Face in [amazon_link id=”B002I0F5M8″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham City[/amazon_link], so he definitely has the chops to pull this off.
[amazon_link id=”B00C7103DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins[/amazon_link] releases on October 25th.
Is Microsoft announcing tomorrow? Does Sony give a f***?
Nope!
Today Sony released a video hyping the actual, really real Playstation 4. I love how they have blurred the system to give a bit of mystery to the fact that it is a black box. Although mabye they are pulling a complete mindf*** and the image is not doctored and the PS4 actually is blurry like in the video. Now that is some powerful shit right there.
The Sony press conference will be on June 10th at 6PM PDT and we will have all the coverage you can stand.
Kevin Conroy confirmed at the Dallas Comic-Con that he will indeed be returning as the voice of The Dark Knight in this fall’s Batman: Arkham Origins. Conroy said the reason for the delay was that he had been under a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and could not talk about his role in the project.
This is HUGE news for me. I was planning on getting Arkham Origins, but the fact Conroy was gone was already going to start the game in a hole for me. What can I say? I am a Conroy guy.
The Playstation Vita’s biggest fall release is getting a change in release date to avoid Grand Theft Auto.
Killzone: Mercenary is moving from September 17th to September 10th wisely avoiding the release of Grand Theft Auto V. The portable shooter had already set its September 17th date before GTA changed from its spring release to its current one. At least Sony is giving the Vita title a chance instead of leaving it buried.
If you haven’t had the chance to play Blood Dragon yet, or if you have but missed the live-action launch trailer, I am going to ask that you take the time to view the trailer posted below. Just trust me on this. Thanks.
It’s brutal honesty time: If that trailer stirred nothing within you, this game is not your thing. I say that now because the review below might make you think otherwise, so don’t come crying to me if you decide to pick it up and are then disappointed. I warned you.
For those of you who did “feel those feels” so to speak, Blood Dragon may be the best $15 you spend this year. It is everything that trailer would lead you to expect on the surface, and surprisingly more underneath.
The game stars Rex “Power” Colt, a Mark IV cyber-soldier who has been sent with his partner Spider to investigate a mysterious island base. Of course, things go horribly wrong, and Rex is forced to work with the beautiful (but mysterious) Dr. Darling to try and stop Sloan, his former CO and mentor who has gone off the reservation.
The story is told via animated scenes straight out of something like Contra or Double Dragon; the characters are just static drawings that slide back and forth or change position suddenly whenever they are supposed to be “moving.” Did I mention these scenes are intentionally scaled to only take up about 1/6 of your screen, and use 16-bit color?
Gameplay, on the other hand, is rendered using the full Far Cry 3 engine, albeit a tweaked version of it that makes everything look like a mix between Tron, LV-426, and the Terminator future. The lasting effect is a mixed bag of drab environments that lack the stunning immersion of FC3, versus objects that pop nicely against this backdrop so that every enemy, animal, vehicle and item really stands out for the player. The game world is admittedly rather dark, and my first play session left me with a headache as my eyes adjusted.
One of the surprises the game had for me was just how much time I would spending with it, because after the initial mission and a brief tutorial on base-capturing, the island opens up to you just like in FC3. There aren’t any radio towers, but there are a dozen bases for you to capture, two types of side-quests, animals to hunt, and three types of collectibles to search for. I was genuinely pleased that this wasn’t a straight action game, and roaming the land is every bit as much fun as it was in FC3.
The base capturing works a little differently, mainly due to the presence of the titular blood dragons: Creatures of unknown origin, these dinosaur-sized, neon glowing mini-Godzillas roam the island at will. They will make a bee-line for you if you don’t move quietly around them, but their roaming can be controlled by luring them around with cyber-hearts taken from your enemies. They are immensely hostile, and can attack with tooth, claw, and lasers from their eyes.
Each enemy base has shields around it that keep dragons out, but you can lure them close enough to use their lasers, and keep enemies distracted long enough to sneak in and turn off the shields. Once that happens, it’s just a matter of watching the dragons kick ass until the base is clear, at which point you need to either kill them or lure them back outside of the shields to take the base. I usually opted to lure them out, mainly because I saw them as allies, but also because they’re hard as shit to kill until you get a few of the late-game weapons.
For the side missions, Path of the Predator makes a return; go here, get a certain kind of weapon, kill specific enemy / enemies with that weapon. The other type is a hostage rescue, where you have to kill all of the enemies in a certain area without being detected, otherwise they off the hostage. The collectibles are appropriately themed: there are VHS tapes with spoof descriptions of 80s classics; TV sets that are tuned to a strange, static-filled signal; and research notes about the crazy things Sloan’s lead scientist is trying.
One of the complaints with FC3 was that there were simply too many random tasks that didn’t really contribute anything to the experience. Blood Dragon corrects this issue by having all of your weapon attachment unlocks tied to the side missions and collectibles. Think running around finding TV sets is boring? Find enough of them and you unlock a double-barrel, and then a quad-barrel attachment for your shotgun. The system isn’t perfect; for instance, all four upgradable weapons have three capacity upgrades, which is a bit much. I would suggest taking the time to find everything before completing the game; otherwise some of the cool attachments you get will never see any real use.
Adventuring around the island will also earn you cyber-points, known in other games as “experience.” Blood Dragon retains a lot of them same perks and skills as FC3; instead of branching skill trees, each level-up simply unlocks a new ability, bumps your max health, etc. So though Rex doesn’t feel quite as hand-crafted a killer as Jason Brody, the end result is that you slowly become more and more bad-ass without having to fret with menus.
When you finally do get around to the story missions, you will be treated to five of the most action-packed, sharply-written action movie parodies imaginable. I thought deeply about how much to talk about the one-liners, references and twists that pop up as you progress, and decided that it’s all just too good to spoil. I will say that the second-to-last mission is the hardest part of the game, but it opens up and ability that makes the last mission pure joy. You know how action movie heroes get their ass kicked in the second act, but then after a montage spend the entire third act killing 10x the number of enemies that previously whooped them? It’s that, and then some, and about halfway through that last mission… Well, no spoilers, but I was literally laughing while wiping away tears of joy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH4UwdS5sPE
There are not a whole lot of reasons to stick around after the credits roll, other than to grab a few missed collectibles, or maybe tackled the task of killing 25 dragons, but I was still supremely satisfied. It seems that more and more companies are using downloadable titles as a way to let dev teams do cool, off-the-wall ideas, and Blood Dragon is the epitome of the trend so far. If you have $15 and a free weekend, then you have what it takes to do it “Mark IV style, mother(@#^er!”
I played Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon on the Xbox 360. It is also available for download on PC and Playstation 3.
I am a Batgirl fan. Actually the more appropriate statement would be I am a Batgirl addict. I have statues, comics, graphic novels. I can not help but watch every episode of the Adam West batman when Yvonne Craig would be on as Barbara Gordon in Season 3 (seriously, do you not know how hot she was?).
Now Batgirl is the second of four DLC characters for [amazon_link id=”B0088I7L76″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Injustice: Gods Among Us[/amazon_link]. Here we have a video of Barbara taking on The Joker and showing off all of her moves.
And yes, The Joker is wearing his beach attire from The Killing Joke. Please let this be part of the DLC. For a bat fan like me, that is worth almost the price of the game.
Bethesda is going back to the grandfather of first person shooters with Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Set in an alternate 1960’s where the Nazis have won World War II and control the free world. You will play as original character BJ Blazkowicz and attempt to take down the Nazi horde once and for all.
To celebrate Gran Turismo’s 15th anniversary, Sony has announced that they and Polyphony will hold a Gran Turismo event on May 15th that will unveil the future of the franchise while looking back at its history.
Rumors have swirled that Sony is planning to release Gran Turismo 6 on PS3 before the end of the year. Some would say that it should be released on the PS4, but they already have Drive Club coming for the next-gen system and GT6 would be a great way to keep interest in the PS3 high during the fall of a new console launch.
I will venture a guess that a Gran Turismo anniversary edition of some sort will be announced too.
